Last fall at the annual MAX conference, Adobe launched the current version of Creative Cloud, CC 2017… This major release was announced, demoed, and shipped all on day one of the show.

This year, MAX is happening next month, from October 18-20. It doesn’t seem unreasonable to presume that the next major version of Creative Cloud – CC 2018 – could well be released in the same fashion and timeframe.

Adobe MAX 2017, The Creativity Conference – running from October 18-20 – will be chock full of expert keynotes and presentations, technical and how-to ses­sions, product announce­ments and sneak peeks, evening events and parties, networking and meeting the teams, and possibly some surprises… The show is an amazing experi­ence where they really take care of you from start to finish while you soak up all the growth and learning you can.

In fact, many of the best courses and tutorial sessions from the last MAX were recorded and are still available on-demand for free viewing, covering all Adobe applications.

Late last year, Adobe launched the all-new CC 2017 product line, a major milestone of creative tools and services marking the fifth major release of the CC product line, which replaced CS6 from 2012. This latest CC version contains thousands of new features and advancements compared to CS6 (across all creative applica­tions), and it is available only via Creative Cloud membership – a community which now surpasses 9 million paid subscribers.

Adobe CC 2017 is also known as the Creative Cloud 2017 Release… And that is exactly what we’re giving away for free below, and this offer is open to everyone world­wide.

So we’re pleased to announce that, with the recent addition of the Lightroom Performance Guide, this no-cost collection has now grown to 30 different titles that you can legally download and use royalty-free, forever. These eBooks comprise thousands of pages covering the CC and CS releases of all major Adobe products. So before you go and spend money for a book, you might want to check these out first!

We’ve got a great new resource for you – a free 213 MB collection of custom Photoshop textures to help set your work apart… This exclusive set of 29 different hand-crafted textures was just released by War Unicorn Media at no cost and is 100% royalty-free. This collection comes complete with an 18-page guide (available online or as a downloadable PDF), filled with tips and tricks on how to best use textures in your Photoshop workflow, as well as how to create your own!

Textures are super-easy to apply and use in Photoshop. Just load the texture into a new layer above your composition, and then set its Blending Mode and Opacity for how you want it to impact the photograph or image underneath. More details and ideas are given in the short tutorial video included below.

Here’s a fantastic new resource that you should not miss – and even bookmark/share… It’s a complete introductory-level class on how to best use Photoshop from the training team at Adobe KnowHow – a course worth hundreds of dollars, but now completely FREE with no catch. It includes 5½ hours of high-quality instruction broken out into 16 chapters with 58 video tutorials (in HD or SD), covering everything you need to know to really get going with Photoshop – the world’s leading graphics and photo editing application – at no cost!

Adobe has really been sweetening the pot lately for you to try out their massive Stock photo collection… These are high-quality, curated images, illustrations, vectors, graphics, templates, and more from a vast collection of over 90 million assets to choose from. After completing the acquisition of Fotolia in 2015, Adobe rolled out a one-month-free offer which was nice, but it required paying for your first month up front (which would later be refunded).

As Lightroom’s usage and sophistication grows, and as image sizes and photo collections also continue to grow, there has been increasing need for a comprehensive guide to ensure the program is always running as fast as it can, and is optimized for best performance on your system.

The Adobe Lightroom Performance Guide is now out, and contains 11 chapters on every­thing you ever wanted to know about Lightroom and speed. It is available as a free downloadable book in PDF format. Here is an overview of the topics it covers:

Longtime readers know that we offer a series of free books for Adobe software with over 20 different titles that anyone can download on how to best use the different major products… These books have been trem­endously popular and well-received.

But since Adobe software is all about creating, for a long time there was a missing part: a collection of free books simply about building your creativity – something that everyone in the world can use and benefit from… So here is that set! You can legally download and use the five PDF e-books below to inspire your own creative process and help improve your work, no matter what you do in life. They are (in our view) all easy, enjoyable, and enriching reads.

Book #1: The Creative Aid Handbook (142 Pages)

Co-creators Richard Tapp and Nicole Smith of Kooroo Kooroo rightly describe The Creative Aid Handbook as a outside-of-the-box resource to get your creative juices flowing: “We wrote, designed, and illustrated a book featuring unusual tips to nurture your creative well-being, boost your creative intellect and foster internal inspiration. Meant to serve as a mini-resource for your creative projects and food for your creative thoughts. We’ve included our own valuable refer­ences and resources we know and trust as a means to help you get your projects done. We want to give you the creative push from a direction you may not have thought of, be it informative, inspirational, or simply entertaining.”